I think I'm ready

Today was just another day getting between home and work via bicycle.  It's definitely my favorite way to commute for a number of reasons. The foremost of which is that I love riding my bike. 

Sometimes I forget that.  When I'm tired or when it's absurdly hot out.  Or on those days when for some reason the bike just doesn't seem to fit right and I can't get comfortable. And of late, I've been spending a lot of time officiating, so part of me hasn't been happy with the fact that I haven't been on my bike on a weekend since I don't know when - ok, so I just looked it up, it's been a year not counting computrainer time or the spin classes with the ABRT juniors on Saturdays last winter.

This evening, I left the office and cycled over the Hains Point to get some miles in.  The first lap was pathetic.  I had no energy and contemplated a one-and-done but then a friend pulled onto the loop ahead of me.  We rode together for several laps, picked up Chris for a while and a fellow we didn't know but who had the simple courtesy to ask if we minded if he tagged along.  Nice enough guy who was happy to hang with us - I wasn't going to tell him it was a Zone 2 sort of night.  Mother Nature threw some large rain drops at us, but nothing much really.  But I kept an eye on the sky anyway and noted the growing storm up river.  I bid the others farewell, hoping I was guessing right about being able to ride fast enough to stay ahead of the storm.

So I take off, pressing the pace, once more riding at a speed that would scandalize many of the members of my recreational bike club. In other words, I was exceeding the 15mph speed limit on the trail.  Oh dear. ;-)

I notice that my tail light isn't working.  Batteries don't last forever.  Just wish tonight wasn't the night it gave up - it's getting darker and darker as the clouds chase me.  Love my new headlight. Running it in daylight flash mode because it's not dark enough to need it in headlight mode.

I cross the Woodrow Wilson Bridge - it's just a hair over 2km long (2053m to be specific).  I glance to my left and see that DC is looking night-dark with heavy clouds dropping a shroud of rain on the city. I looks cool but I'm more interested in getting to my car before the weather gets to me than taking a photo.  The winds are starting to pick up.

I hit the final climb and throw a lot of watts into the first, steepest section.  When I push, in my head I'm often off in the land of pros.  Tonight is no exception.  I hit that first part of the hill and I'm Joe D flying up Mt. Baldy.  The grade lessens just as my body points out to me that I'm fast twitch, not slow twitch... in other words, I'm a sprinter not a climber.  Ok fine, I'm not Joe D, I've simply delivered him to the final phase of the climb.  As I continue to push myself up the final segment of the climb, my phantom Joe D is flying up ahead.

The traffic light at the top of the climb even cooperates and turns green just as I arrive.  As I back off to sort of cool down for a few hundred meters, I realize that I'm ready.  Time to reach out to my old coach and talk about prepping for the TT championship in August, because I'm ready.  Not only do I love riding my bike, but I love pushing hard on the bike.

A Visit to a Far Corner of Sufferlandria

It's been quite a while since I've been here to blog. Things are just too busy. No time for this. But since I had an "epic" ride on Friday...well, I feel compelled to share.

Usually when we talk about a ride being epic we're talking lots of miles, daunting terrain, thunderstorms, twisters, etc. Not quite the case for me on Friday, but epic in its own way nonetheless.

I was all set to ride home, feeling a bit queasy but ready to hit the road, had just clipped my helmet strap when I lost the fight with queasy. Yeah, lunch didn't get digested, it got flushed. Along with every ounce of water, etc. I'd imbibed. So my system was depleted, emptied, the fuel gauge was below E. And the rest of me wasn't doing a whole lot better. Mental focus and coordination were a challenge.

13.5 miles by bicycle. Yeah, I probably should have used my GRH but I had visions of my bike hanging out the back of a taxi cab trunk that I just couldn't deal with. So I strapped my helmet on again, and hit the road to discover a corner of Sufferlandria I'd never before visited.

Worse than any bonk, driven solely by the need to get home, I negotiated through traffic in Georgetown and maneuvered around runners, walkers and tourists, generating a leg breaking 60 or maybe 75 watts with the occasional surge into triple digits. Ever so thankful for the tailwind. Yet every pedal stroke of the way was pure suffering. I needed to stop, to pause, but I didn't dare, that might mean not being able to get back on the bike, not being able to get back to the car and home.

The ride is very scenic. I didn't notice. It was a cool, but clear beautiful evening. All I noticed was the cool part which was pushing to cold in my super-bonk state. The last 3 miles of my ride include a very rough (though very new) section of pave, a drag of a hill, a small descent, a Z-ramp up, a corkscrew ramp down, a section of recovery and then a three-quarter mile hill that on a good day hurts even when I try to keep the watts down because its the end of the ride.

On the pave, Paul and Phil pop up in my head, describing the move, the attack, I'm making, dangerously far from the finish. But it could be brilliant if it works because no one's gone with me. My speed drops precipitously on that final ascent, 6mph, 5mph, but I manage to stay upright and moving forward. I hold them off for the stage win. (Come on, would they really be describing my struggle to beat the time cut?)

I make it to the car, on the verge of tears, barely able to dismount. But I have to stay at it a bit longer. Gotta pack up and drive the couple of miles home and get into the house, were I can strip out of the gear and crawl into bed. By the time I get home, I'm cold, shivering violently. I change into the warmest clothes I can lay my hands on (thermal shirt, heavy sweats) and crawl into bed. I drift in and out of sleep, still deep within Sufferlandria.

Beautiful Morning

This morning was beautiful. The break in the heat and humidity ever so welcome. I've said it before and continue the practice...my commute is not a race, it is not a training ride, it's just a ride. I respect the 17 stop signs through Alexandria. I am patient with slower riders, walkers or runners, waiting until it makes sense to pass. I take pause, exercise caution, in areas where I know other riders have a tendency to be a bit irresponsible.

Today had some very good examples. When I ride in, I cross the Woodrow Wilson Bridge (the I-95 crossing of the Potomac River). To connect to Royal Street to cross Alexandria, I go down alongside the bridge and under it. I don't bomb that descent for two reasons. One is the very tight left hander at the bottom into a path with jersey wall separating directions of travel and chainlink fence on the other side. Not enough room to take it with a lot of speed The other is that I regularly watch others come out from there too fast, swinging their right hander wide as if there was absolutely no way a rider could be coming the other way. Sure enough this morning, one such rider came blasting out of the right hander. I watched it from halfway down the descent.

As I cleared the narrow trail - construction is on going and the slapdash pavement they threw down is lumpier than packed dirt/gravel was - two commuters who can only be described as Freds rolled past me. They aren't aggressively blowing through the stop signs, they aren't riding fast enough for that, but they aren't slowing at all either. I am amused, as their pace doesn't distance them from me much while I respect the stop signs - no I don't full stop, but I do slow significantly. I look ahead and shake my head. He's wearing brown corduroys (or so they appeared to be) without having rolled up the right leg. No it's not getting caught in the drive train, but it's getting very greasy. Doh! She's got her capris on, her helmet at something of a jaunty angle.

Beyond them, I see that they're working on the road, narrowing it to one lane, with a solo flagger working the traffic control. The Freds are a few bike lengths beyond the intersection, waiting for the flagger. I chuckle as I clear the stop sign and move into the service road proceeding unhindered by the construction and the flagger. Strange, they never caught back up to me.

At the far end of Alexandria, I opt to stay on the road rather than ride a small section of trail that is narrow, the foliage isn't cut back and it has a fair number of root heaves. I stop at the red light where I'll make my right turn to hook up with the Mt Vernon Trail a block down and parallel the GW Parkway along the river for a while. It's a no turn on red intersection because you can't see what's coming - angle of the bend in the road and landscaping give you no sightlines at all. No problem. I grab my bottle. A Porsche Carrera pulls up next to me, windows down, sun roof open. "Swap you for a day," I offer. The driver chuckles. "I don't doubt you could handle this car, but I don't think I could handle your bike." We chat about the weather, how many miles my commute is, that sort of thing. Both of us are simply enjoying the fabulous morning. While we're chatting, one cyclist, then another, opt to go around us, ignore the no turn on red sign and ride away. Well, they sure showed me! After all, I was having a great time, enjoying my ride and the day and a chat with a random stranger...surely they're decision to ignore the red light, no turn on red and the risks to themselves and others was the right way to go. After all, the second one made it all the way to the next red light before I caught up to him.

Apparently

I'm an anomaly as a bike commuter. I see it in the looks I get from motorists, cyclists, runners, joggers and walkers. They simply don't know what to do when they encounter me and my patience.

Unlike too many of my fellow bike commuters, I actually wait for a reasonable place to pass slower traffic. This morning I rolled at a nominal 12mph for a quarter mile behind a woman on a townie who was clearly doing the best she could until we cleared a particularly windy part of the trail then passed her when I had good sight lines for oncoming traffic. I could tell she was nervous, probably a combination of fearing that I would pass her at an inopportune moment and just that I was behind her.

Runners and walkers often respond to my "on your left" with "thank you." Is that announcement really so uncommon?

Perhaps more amazingly, I respect the 17 stop signs on my route through Alexandria. Yes, many of them are Idaho stops, but some are track stands. Most motorists look at me with confusion when I urge them to take their turn at the 4-way-stop, their expressions seeming to say "what? you're not going to damn near give me a heart attack by blowing through the stop sign assuming that I'll yield to you? Inconceivable."

I don't care when other commuters blow past me, just shake my head at them when I see them blow a stop sign then swerve to avoid getting hit by the car that has the right of way proceeding through the intersection. No doubt they think I'm a wuss for exercising care around cars. That's ok, I know they're morons. ;-)

I know that when I'm exercising patience waiting for a reasonable place to pass on the all too narrow MVT, and they're behind me and I'm slowing them down, they think unkind thoughts about me. That's ok too, as the feeling is mutual.

We simply don't understand each other. Many seem to be out to set a new personal best on their commute and display many of the same aggressive behaviors that auto drivers do. This annoys me because I'm cycling to work to get away from that behavior pattern. So I just don't get why others ride like that.

I'm sure they are equally stumped and unable to understand why I'm simply enjoying my commute. Then again, I don't know that they identify me as a commuter as I don't look like one - I ride a race bike, wear team kit and carry nothing beyond the stuff in my jersey pockets...no backpack, certainly no panniers (I don't own a bike with eyelets to support such things), so maybe they're really thinking, "stupid racer type doing warm up or cool down on my commute route...go somewhere else, get the f out of my way." Oh wait, there's that auto driver behavior again...

I'm happy to stay an anomaly, thank you very much. Perhaps there are some others out there like me, but I haven't noticed them as yet.

Flashback

This blog has been sitting idle for about a year....it's simply been a matter of time more than anything else. Too much to do and not enough time, so the blog gets left behind. But riding to work yesterday made me think about it as I had a flashback....

So there I am cruising along the Potomac on the Mount Vernon Trail, North of the airport and closing in on the ramp to the 14th Street Bridge, passing various riders, runners, joggers and walkers and just enjoying the morning. A rider headed the other way sports "Bikes USA" jersey and my brain takes a big leap backward in time.

The late 90s. I'd just started graduate school to get my MBA, adding to my load of working two jobs. After a few months, I realized I needed something to break things up and my thoughts went back to one of the greatest joys of my youth - riding a bike.

One weekend I drove over to Bikes USA and looked around. I wasn't sure how serious I was about returning to riding, so I didn't want to spend a lot. I decided on a Gary Fischer Hybrid that they were touting as a "sport utility bike." The cost was, well, let's just say I probably spent more on text books for some of those grad school classes. By the time I added in the necessary accessories - helmet, pump etc, it probably exceeded a textbook bill, but not by a lot.

Out I went, onto the neighborhood trail. It isn't long 6 miles maybe, with one hill (ok, I thought it was a hill at the time). After that got a bit dull, I went across the river to the Mount Vernon Trail. Every time I went out, I admired the riders on the road bikes. I envied their smooth, seemingly effortless pedal strokes and vowed that one day I would be like that too. I knew by then that cycling would stay in my life, the passion of my youth rekindled.

My brother gave me toe clips for Christmas that year. And shortly there after I learned exactly how fast I could come out of them to save myself from a fall when I hit a patch of ice over by the powerplant. I wasn't put off by the near disaster. Instead, I started thinking about SPDs. I got those a couple months later and only fell once on the first ride due to having trouble unclipping.

I rode a supported metric century and started thinking about a road bike. 9 months after getting the hybrid, I spent time visiting half a dozen bike shops, test riding until I found the bike that spoke to me. Part of me argued it was idiotic - I was spending the cost of a class on a bicycle! But the rest of me knew it was money well spent, at least as well spent as my education. I own several road bikes these days.

I realized on that commute yesterday morning, as I cruised along the river (now on my way to the office) that I was doing it with that smooth, effortless beauty I had envied back at the beginning.

Gotta Ride

Riding today really wasn't up for discussion - it wasn't a matter of I should do it because it would be good training, nor an ought to do it because I haven't had the option of riding outside for quite a while. It was a simple matter of must do it. Riding today was an absolute must - I needed to get out, I needed to get some sun and fresh air, needed to ride my bike when it wasn't clamped into a trainer. Needed sweat to evaporate naturally instead of spilling into my eyes while the fan failed to motivate it to evaporate.

It wouldn't have mattered that I had a new bike to take out on its maiden ride. Or new shoes to test out. But I did. Also new were the team bibs and team jersey.

The route is one of my favorites and I'm still trying to figure out how to hold a TT on in. I rode hard, I rode easy, I tested out the bike in a variety of ways, I chatted with this rider and that. Shook my head at Nancy...what is that tri penchant for absurdly low cadence? And 4 layers? Today?

Late in the ride, the fact that I've been on the trainer for the last month (25-30 miles typically) started to show. Ok, so I also fubared and didn't grab my bars (those of us with tree nut and peanut allergies really have to be careful about food!) so I was probably underfed a bit and I know I didn't drink as much as I should have. Flippin' stupid rookie mistakes. But no biggie, I can just dial it back and cruise the last handful of miles at a relaxed pace. All good cause I'm out riding the bike and getting adapted to it and the SRAM shifting system (love it!).

And then the strangest thing happened. I'm riding along - the rest of 'em are still in sight - and the road wraps around a farm field. In the middle of the field there's a deer. Just standing there. It was so still at first I thought it was a practice target. But no, it was a deer. And it watched me for a little bit and then decided I was a viable target so it started running at me, constantly adjusting its course as I pedaled along. I'm thinking WTF? Before it gets to the far side of the pavement, I decide it's time to dig beyond my fatigue and dig out some pace. Maybe this deer has talked to that squirrel that bounced off my front rim last year? No collision happened, happily my upping the tempo put me ahead of the deer when it crossed the road. But damn, what was up with that?

The rest of the ride was uneventful. Blake drifted back to make sure I was ok, which of course I was, but it's nice to have someone notice when you come off the back of the group.

Hats off Benny Budd (service manager) for the build on my bike and Chris Richardson for his meticulous attention to detail in tweaking fit and cleat placement. You guys at Bike Doctor Waldorf rock!

First win of the season

I scored my first win of the season on Saturday by laying down the best time of the Cat 3/4 women in the GamJams TT Throwdown (computrainer racing). It was suggested that maybe having built the course for the competition I had a better knowledge of it that others, but really, I only rode it once after it was done. And in truth I didn't have the best of days on Saturday - too much stress from the ice moguls of the road between my house and the main road. Bottomed out, got stuck had to shovel to get unstuck. High stress. And then everything was way off schedule when I got out to HPC, so the nutrition window was exceeded, another stressor. And I really prefer racing when I'm fresh, which means first thing in the morning, before anything else has had the chance to get in the way. So I had all the excuses lined up and ready to go...and then I didn't need 'em. Not a bad place to be in February, though I guarantee you that by the time I need to peak (August) my time on that same course will be much faster.

In truth what I did was use it as training anyway. I know I can go fast, really hammer, on the flats. But I'm just not a climber...so I tackled the course with the mind set of killing everything that was an uphill - be it 0.5% or 2.6% or the big finish of 8% - and just doing my best to hold on in the flats.

It was fun and maybe next year more people will give it a try. Better than driving to NC only to have one race canceled due to snow. :-)

What do you do with a snowy day....

I surfed around and found a couple of particularly amusing xtranormal videos.

Gotta love this one on powermeters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryBA39A_LjI&feature=related

And for all my officiating friends, gotta love this one....
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/5741913/

Neglected...

This blog has been totally neglected for more than six months. But it's going to become un-neglected.

2009 and 2010 is already one month old. Where does the time go? But it's gone. Time to move on. Forward always moving forward.

This weekend some of the local racers (and non-racers) are going to tackle the TT course I built for the GamJams TT Throwdown. Methinks some folks will connect my name with some curse words before the weekend is done.

Next up Stony Creek...

Tomorrow's training ride. Just enough to keep the legs going, not enough to mess up Sunday's TT.

One Helluva Week

The weekend went pretty much ok. Got in a nice ride on Saturday, even with that nasty gash in the tire. Working BikeJam was a good experience for me. I'm still a rookie at some things as an official, even though I work a lot of races I've never been a pit ref for a race where the pit actually had business. It was a great learning experience and now I know how to do the job really well at future races. Some of it was easy - races that stay together don't require much in the way of scoring - how many times do you need to write down "F" for field? Some of it was hard. And we had a great time over at Lisa's post-race. I didn't get home until after 11pm... good thing I can nap on the train going in to work on Monday morning.

Monday morning the hamstrings bitching about spending most of the day Sunday standing around was an omen of things to come. Rest of the day was ok, no big excitements, nice pleasant yoga class. Tuesday all hell broke loose with the race scheduled for Saturday that I'm Chief Ref for.

Tuesday evening was a bright spot though, cause I was riding the Ordu and really enjoying it that evening. The Serotta was over at the shop getting the new, narrower bars put on. It was a good evening.

Wednesday saw the continuation of the thrills and chills relative to the race. Two days of emails, phone calls, conferences calls and careful considerations led us to conclude the race had to be postponed. Pain in the ass for all but the risk of someone getting hurt was too high, better to race next month and have safer conditions.
The whole thing was really draining. I actually had to have my chiropractor wait to work on me while I finished up the last phone call with the promoter. Thankfully he's very active sports-wise (coaching his kids' teams stuff like that) so he was totally sympathetic when I explained to him why I was being ever so rude as to be on my cell phone at that moment.

Whew, got all that behind me. Though I ended up staying up late just to unwind. Legs were feeling progressively better as the week went on. Thursday... always a good day at the point, big bunch lots of options for pace. But by the time I got there I was tired and unmotivated. But I knew that if I found some folks to ride with, I'd be fine. The bunch was big and I debated joining in...sometimes when it's that big it's just a little too sketchy for my tastes. I pulled into the parking lot, picked up Kenny and did a lap with him. We did a little ring spin lap - lots of fun. Pulled in to the lot again to hook up with Angie and some others. But then Iris went by riding with 2 others - a woman with a CapHillBikes jersey and a guy. I was chatting with an NCVC rider and decided to chase on to that little pace line. I had no trouble doing so and when I got up there I noticed the NCVC guy had come along for the ride. I went to the front near the end of the lap and easily rode away from the group. Then let them pass and hooked back on for the next go round. It was definitely a busy night at the Point. Probably 80-100 cyclists total (not all in one bunch), walkers, runners, skaters, and of course cars and tour buses. Definitely a night to ride very heads up....

The woman with the Cap Hill jersey (turns out her name is Lindsay) was on the front, then Iris and then me. I don't know if the guys were still with us behind me or not. I don't much worry about who is behind me, I stay focused on the important stuff - what's going on ahead of me. So we come around the point and Lindsay picked up the tempo. No problem. We were right at the speed limit (the powertap download shows it as 24.9mph) when disaster struck. There was slow traffic ahead, we took the left lane - why not, we were going the speed limit. But then the car in the right lane that was going slow decided it was going to come into the left lane to get around some walkers (I believe there were 3 walking side by side sucking up the entire right lane) and didn't bother to check that it was safe to change lanes. I know I yelled out, but I was third wheel and the guy had the windows closed....

Lindsay reacted well, did her absolute best to swerve to avoid the collision, smartly slammed on both brakes so she didn't endo, but still hit the car - her right side taking the impact. He was going slower so he stopped first. His driver's side mirror, the one that he should have used!, broke away when her hip hit it. Mama Duck mode kicked in, even though I didn't know her at all. I stopped. I stayed with her. I checked over the bike. The cops came. I told them what happened. Iris told a different story. I shrugged when the cop told me that. I couldn't explain the difference. I just know what I saw from my perspective. Thinking about it now, I write it off to the fact that she probably isn't as hyper aware when riding as I am so she didn't have a clear picture, maybe she was riding a bit too much head down too.

The good news - rider and bike appeared to be pretty much ok. Still, we sent her off to the hospital in the ambulance so she could get checked out well and maybe some heavier duty pain killers. She's got to be hurting a lot today. Manny took her bike so it'd be safe - the cops offered to lock it up, but well, folks don't understand what bikes mean to cyclists (nor do they necessarily understand the actual dollar value).

I know the driver didn't do it on purpose. It was an accident. And I think it really scared the hell out of him and his family, I really hope it did and that he'll be a better driver because of it.

It was comforting to see how the cyclists responded...definitely a sense of looking out for our own. And yet by the time I got home I was deeply depressed. I'm still depressed today. Not sure why. Certainly not the first mishap I've seen. Maybe it's just the sum total of the week's events. I don't know.

Hopefully the weekend will go great - ride tomorrow, race Sunday, ride Monday. First I gotta get out of this funk.

Random Thoughts

After the evil agonizing ride of a couple of weeks ago, I'm very happy to say that all is right between me and the bike.  Our differences are resolved and we are a harmonious team once again.  This is a good thing.

They've posted up the schedule for Master's Nationals.  I'm glad that I will get my racing done in two days now instead of having to be out there for a week.  Still have to get out there ahead of the TT.  It's a new course, so a pre-ride is absolutely necessary.  And that ride will get the drive out of my legs (though I plan to drive with my recovery tights on!).

I am happy to know that I will not be doing the Tour of Washington County Stage Race.  It really wasn't any fun last year and there's absolutely no point in doing it this year when it's time based.  I probably wouldn't make the time cut from the RR to even get to the TT and Crit, so no need to waste the time and money.

"Think about it - how long would you last doing intervals with no rest?"  (I won't name names on who typed that but some of you might recognize it.)  Stuff like this cracks me up.  Intervals with no rest aren't intervals, it become a sustained effort when there's no rest.  Like duh.  How long would you last doing a sustained effort?  Most of us do it for about an hour or so in the form of a 40km TT.  It's not really what the author of the statement was trying to say, but that's how it came out.  And that amuses me.

Hamstrung

I had this great plan for last weekend.  Finally I had a weekend clear - no concerts to work, no concerts to attend, no races to officiate.  Just the bike club annual dinner that I could always skip if need be.  So the plan was to ride, a lot.  A nice 60-miler on Saturday and then drive out to KA for the Sunday ride.  Even the weather was willing to cooperate.  It was going to be a weekend of cycling indulgence that I seldom get.

Mid week training - check.  One visit to the gym.  Check.  Massage and chiropractic adjustment. Check.  An excellent schedule to lead up to the weekend.  But oh no, couldn't have that happen, nope, not an option.  By Friday the legs weren't doing all that well - especially my hamstrings.  My hamstrings tend to be tight - that's part of me.  I do yoga and stretch to try to keep them from getting too tight, but they have a will of their own.  So I went out for a lunch time run - at a very easy pace - to see if some movement wouldn't improve the situation.  It didn't seem to make things any worse but didn't improve matters either.

On to the massage... oh yeah, those hamstrings were not happy campers.  Lots of work to try to clear the congestion.  Off to the chiropractor...yup tight, tight, tight.  At least my midback was happy to pop back into alignment.

Saturday morning, things were not improved to speak of - the hammies were still complaining.  I went out and rode my bike anyway.  Never have I suffered as I did.  No time trial, no hilly road race, no crit, nothing, had ever had me hurting on the bike the way I was on Saturday.  It was manageable for the first 30 miles or so.  But then things started to get significantly worse.  Over the next 20 miles or so, I felt every muscle in my upper legs engage in an effort to compensate for the hamstrings until I reached a point where they all were worn out and sending pain signals.  Never before had my legs hurt so bad.  I dropped off the back of the ride - sometimes it's best to suffer alone.

I reached a point in that solo suffering where I was ready to be done with cycling in any way, shape or form.  Never would I lead a ride for the club, hell, I'd resign as treasurer.  Never would I train or race, ever again.  Had there been a dumpster in sight, it might have turned into a re-enactment of that scene from Karate Kid where Daniel (not yet Daniel-san) while cycling was run off the road by the bullies on their motor bikes  and battered and bruised as a result tossed his bike in the dumpster loudly professing his hate for the machine.

Then I moved beyond it ignored the physical pain, set aside the emotional pain,  rolled up to the stop sign where the rest of the group was waiting and sat on the front, pulling at the agreed pace for the last few miles of the ride.  The weekend's riding was done though - I knew there was no way my hamstrings would be recovered such as to tolerate a hilly ride out of KA the next day.  I was figuring that if I could once again touch my toes by sometime on Sunday, I'd be doing great.

The effort took so much out of me that I spent a lot more hours asleep than normal - both over night and taking a nap on Sunday.  The pain had mostly faded over night but walking seemed to be as much effort as my legs were interested in doing.  I didn't argue.  The recovery day did its job and I'm all better now.  The 4 mile run at lunch yesterday went without a hitch (though I think it's time for new running shoes) and yoga did its magic.  I guess the true test will be tonight on the bike, but I don't doubt that the legs will be fine, even happy to pedal. Maybe, if I'm lucky, I managed to push the mental barriers back a bit so that I'll be able to suffer more effectively in competition.

Flatlander in Western Maryland

It wasn't that far into today's ride out of Kelley Acres that I asked RB why it was that I'd traveled 75 miles to suffer such as I was suffering a climb up a narrow little gritty, damp road somewhere in Frederick or  Washington County.  It was really a rhetorical question, we both knew why we were cycling up the hill.  I do it because it supplies the element that is missing from my riding in Southern Maryland - long climbs.  It's not that our roads are truly flat down here - not like the Eastern Shore and Delaware.  But our hills (which are the product of streams cutting valleys while making their way to the river)  are short, measured in fractions of a mile, and steep, more often than not going into double digits on the percent grade.  So the long climbs that happen out West supply something that is missing from my training.  But the distance involved to get to that sort of riding means I don't do it all that often.  And so I end up feeling like a Dutchwoman cycling in Belgium.

 The downside is that because of that, I'm always last, well almost always, so I feel bad cause folks are always waiting for me or riding back a bit to check on me.  They're always nice about it, but it's gotta suck for 'em. 

Part of the problem today is that I was tired.  Today was my third ride in as many days, and I haven't ridden three days in a row since August.  Tough on the old body.  And of course it's not like I come home from rides and just sit around.  I've been busy with working on painting and cleaning up and fixing things up in the utility room.  As far as I've gotten looks great. 

So my days have been pretty much get up, ride, come home, lunch and clean up, spackle/sand/paint, make dinner,  then another round of spackle/sand/paint.  There's some cleaning involved too.  Toss in doing some laundry and cleaning up the bike and the days are long and tiring.  In all, pretty hard on the old body.  So tonight I'm taking it easy.  After the ride I got some lunch then stopped by the Container Store to get stuff to improve the storage situation in the utility room.  But I'm not putting it up tonight....or doing anything else.  Just watching the House marathon and blogging a bit.

Weathering the Weather

Hains Point is a really cool place at times.  Last night was one of those times.  Yes, that's right, while the lightweights, wannabes, and generally weather intimidated stayed home yesterday evening, I rode my bike at Hains Point.  It was totally awesome, because I had the place almost completely to myself.  While I was getting ready I saw a couple of cyclists, never saw them again.  One skater, but he didn't stick around too long.  At the time I pulled out of the parking lot on two wheels, a runner headed out the other direction.  I saw him a bit later... one lap and he jumped in his suv and took off.  He had appeared to be a more serious distance type runner than that... guess the wind was too much for him.

I layered up with all the good stuff - my addidas bib tights, my assos jacket, the cold weather gloves, booties, a nice wigwam knit hat to keep head and ears warm. Everything that is particularly good at blocking the wind. Pretty much the only part of me exposed to the wind chill was my face.  And I stayed warm.  My face got colder on the descents at Skyline a couple of weeks ago.  The wind was amazing.  There was only bits of tail wind, that was fun - look, 90 watts and I'm going 20mph!  Of course that was on the channel side.  Over on the river side, well, if you ever look at the trees on that side, you know the angle that the strongest winds blow from.  I didn't have any amazing watts numbers this ride, because I was spending a lot of energy controlling the bike.  Picture this - sit on your bike, straighten out your right arm, shift your body to the left of center and sort of hunch over your left arm and lean into the wind, really lean into it.  Then the bike mostly goes straight, only occasionally getting pushed toward the curb.  But remember, don't have a death grip on the bars...that just makes it worse when the gusts hit!  I played with the gears - spin with the tailwind, grind into the headwind, flip it next lap, forget about it the lap after that, just keep going.  Six laps - I told myself the first lap that if I did six, that would be good.  So 76 minutes and 6 laps and I called it done, enough was enough.

Maybe the watts numbers from my legs weren't impressive, but it was a rare total body workout on the bike.  I was having muscle spasms along my rib cage last night from the effort my core, and all my other upper body muscles, had to put out.  And it was good for my head.  There's something about going out and training when the weather is challenging to make you feel stronger and tougher mentally.  And it will give me lots of ammunition to toss at the guys when next I see them.  "I was here Tuesday, where were you? You let a little wind keep you inside?  Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy."  Probably won't be tonight when I see them, though, cause it's still a bit breezy and chilly.

Catching Up

The race season is over, and still I don't have much time to write.  At Turkey Day the best fun was drag-racing a tractor - it didn't have a trailer attached, but it was still good fun, out accelerating it in a block was cool, good to know that I could still accelerate, even in the heat, even after 2 weeks without the bike. (maybe I'll get some pix from Europe up sometime).  Kevin was on the moto with the race and commented on it the next weekend at Charm City.

Charm City was a good time.  Lots of fun overall and really the judging went smooth.  C3 was really happy with it all.  It was quite a different scene than the two Cross races I worked last year.  Both of those had much smaller fields.  The first field was insanity in a way - 100 men, 40 or so women and a handful of juniors.  But we sorted it out well.  Not a single complaint about the results.  Helps to have 5 sets of eyes on the line for a field like that.

Last weekend was awesome.  I was Chief Judge for both Cross races - BCA on Saturday and Kelley Acres on Sunday.  Stayed at Kelley Acres overnight between the two events.  Helped Megan finish up the layout of the cross.  It was wicked cool - nothing I'd want to race though.  Not ready for that sort of stuff without pavement.  Maybe next year I'll give cyclocross a try.  But first things first.  Winter training then road season.  And next road season will be different....

Wow, this blog is really boring...but that's pretty much how my life is.  Just like most other folks my life is mostly boring routine.

Got my new toy - my powertap wheel.  Have the TT bike set up to check it out tomorrow.  Haven't been on a bike or done anything athletic - other than turning the church around after the concert last night - since Thursday.  Then again I haven't been feeling particularly well either.  Friday was the worst - nasty ass sore throat.  Feeling better now, but it took its toll last night....ok, so last night totally sucked, but that's life.  Good help is hard to find and I'm still looking.  The new kid is nice, but he's clueless.  I just don't get why people can't manage to follow straight forward instructions.  "We have to put everything back exactly the way it is, so make sure you know where everything goes.  Use your camera in your phone if need be."  What's confusing about that?  But I'm not going to carry on about work...or me...or being human...though there are some people who don't seem to think that I'm entitled to be human.  I know that I promote that misconception because I don't show my personal weaknesses to others.  That's how I am and thus I pay the price of others thinking everyone else's feelings are more important than mine.

Ah well, such is life.  I am what I am.  Take me or leave me.  Love me or hate me.  The choice is yours and I don't give a damn what your choice is, because I don't live for the approval of others any more.  I've seen too much, been burned too often.  I know your values and your standards fall short of my own, so be false if you want.  Be disloyal.  I won't play your game.  I refuse to be false.  As the lyrics go - I'd rather you hate me for what I am than love me for what I'm not.  I'm ok, I'm good...all things happen for a reason and this life is transitory.  There is only the now.  The future is unknown and the past is over, a done deal.  So breathe deeply and focus on the moment.  Some moments will be good.  Some moments will really suck.  And some moments will be boring as hell!

Maybe I'm The One....

Maybe I'm the one who's a schizophrenic psycho, yeah.

I don't think so...of course probably that's true for anyone be they sane or not.  Most psychos probably don't know they're psycho.  But in my case, I don't think that I'm crazy... I'm just someone of very high intelligence stuck in a world populated with people who ain't too bright....but that's not a big surprise.  If you google "average IQ" you find out that the average IQ is around 100.  My IQ tests out in excess of 150...so I'm 50% more intelligent than the majority of people...so pretty much, relatively speaking, the rest of the world is dumb.  The real problem is that the media preys on the not-so-bright populous, programming their little brains into thinking they're smart, into thinking their ideas are original.  I know someone who is the perfect example of this.  Probably has an average IQ, maybe a little above average - 110-120 something like that.  But she seldom has an opinion of her own.  She is constantly taking someone else's opinion as her own.  One person says "gosh, X is really swell, such brilliance," and suddenly she's parroting the same opinion.  Hasn't seen/read/or had any experience with X herself, has no clue about X, just someone else's notion of what is swell (or horrible).

You're the one, you're the one who is the schizophrenic psycho.

Positive Spin

It's a difficult thing to try to find the upside to things, to put a positive spin on all that happens in life and it's even harder when you decide to take up the sport of bike racing, which is so much more unfair than life.  Maybe that's a good thing (ah ha, the concept arises straight away!)...maybe the fact that you have to deal with the unfair nature of bike racing helps you to better deal with the unfair nature of life.

Like the young, innocent Dave Stoller in "the" cycling film Breaking Away, competitive cyclists learn early on that "everyone cheats."  OK,  lots of folks are generally honest, play by the rules and confine their cheating to simple things that are acceptable in our culture, like exceeding the posted speed limit while driving their cars, not correcting a small error made by a clerk or a computer that gives them a small discount on something.  But in business and in competition, there are many who cut corners and break the rules (whether written or unwritten) on a regular basis. Whether it's pros who dope (in virtually all sports)  to gain advantage or amateurs who sit out a lap but accept a place in the results anyway.  In such cases, the only positive spin you can find is to know that you raced honestly, that you didn't feel any need to cheat.

The unfairness of the sport is simpler than that.  Crashes are part of our sport.  You try to avoid being involved or causing any, but they happen.  So your race can be over because of someone else's f-up. Perhaps the most unfair aspect of this is in our criterium rules - which allow persons who get tangled up in a crash to rejoin the race with no penalty.  But if you manage to avoid hitting the pavement or landing on top of another rider and are simply delayed by a crash, you are left to attempt to catch those who were ahead of the crash or suffer off the back for the rest of the race.  And in the true spirit of competition, those ahead of the crash will often speed up when they hear the clatter of bikes behind them.  What could be more unfair?

So you accept that the sport is unfair and move on because there's an upside to it, a positive spin:  You love to go fast on your bicycle.  You love the challenge of competition.  You love bicycle racing.

The Hop

This is actually going to be a timely race report.  Yesterday was the race formerly known as the Bunny Hop.  They went cutesy and flipped it to the Hunny Bop, but it just doesn't sound right, so "The Hop" is my take on it.  It's only about 5 miles from my house so I actually get to ride to the race.

Hot and humid and generally nasty is how to best describe the weather.  Unlike Saturday, where the humidity was a little lower, Sunday brought a hazy blue-grey sky.  Oh well, what do you expect in mid-July here in the swampland??  I'd gone ahead and registered for two fields, even before I knew for sure that I wouldn't have to set aside my racing to fill in as Chief Judge.  Happily Caitlyn stepped up to do that, so I got to race.

Lisa took care of all the support stuff - number pinning, setting up the canopy, etc.  I seldom bother with the canopy when I don't have her along as support... too much hassle for too little return.

First up was the women's 40+.  There was an immediate crisis in that somehow the BikeReg page information got entered wrong and there was a 30-minute discrepancy in the start time for the race.  In the end the officials were nice enough to recognize that most of us don't download the official flyer, we rely on the data entered into BikeReg and honored the later start time.  That gave us 30 minutes of warm up on the course.  I couldn't tell how I was going to feel in the race.  The warm up felt crappy - which is how it's supposed to feel...get all that crappy feeling out before the race.  I decided to race the Cane Creeks, though I'm still not totally happy with the behavior of the front wheel so far as airing it up goes, it seemed to air up pretty well.  They're great wheels and it's good to use them for more than TTs.

I raced hard in this race.  I wasn't worried about saving anything for the next race.  I did my best to help chase down early break attempts, throw a scare or two into the field, and, of course, recover in between.  It was a fairly fast race.  Cat and CK were racing as well, but we didn't have any sort of team strategy planned.  Cat took 2nd in a 2-place prime.  CK finally got away in a small break between the leaders and the field.  I moved up to the front to disrupt the chase at that point.  Cheryl Osborne did her best to be helpful by calling out to me as I made the move up the outside of the field that I had a teammate in the break.  I knew that, but nice of her to let me know in case I hadn't known. Sometimes you can miss important stuff like that and inadvertently chase down a teammate.  CW was doing most of the chasing so I did my best to discourage that activity.   Once the message got across, I eased up a bit.  No one bothered to take over or chase any more.  Gabanski decided to attack into the first turn on the bell lap.  Well, I couldn't let that go - a matter of personal pride - so I dragged the field around the backside to catch her going into the final turn.  It cost me a place or two in the field sprint, but it was worth it to turn up the tempo one last time.  I'm fine with having finished 9th, and really happy that CK took 4th.

There were some squirrels in that field though.  One woman, wearing BBC colors, didn't even know enough to have her inside pedal up when taking a turn.  So I had to teach her that before she crashed herself (and maybe others) out of the race.  Dana needs to learn how to hold her line....she was all over the place.  In Linh's case I think she's just too small to be able to have good control over the bike.  

I could go cliche here and suggest that they both need stronger cores, but "core" has gotten to be sooo annoyingly cliche...suddenly a "stronger core" the answer to every athlete's woes.  Ain't no doubt, you need a strong core to race a bike well because the core is how you isolate the leg power and translate it fully....upper body motion is wasted energy.  But I'll argue that you need some arm strength too - we're not talking bodybuilding here, just enough arm strength to control the front end and to bunny hop a bottle or other hazard as need be.  So do your crunches and get some dumbells and do some bicep and tricep work.

Post-race, I didn't waste any time getting back to the car and sitting down in the shade.  I downed a bottle of water right away, then started trying to dry off a bit while I took in my recovery bottle (Recoverite with Endure added in).  In the shade with the breeze, it was halfway nice.  Lisa's car took some bumps and bruises though as the canopy had gotten blown into it during the race.  She'd set up the trainer, but I never did use it.  I had the on course warm up (plus the ride over) to prep for the first race and I was thinking that for the 2nd race,  rest and recovery were paramount.  Not like my muscles were going to get physically cold in 95+ degree air.

I had thought the second race was a Women's 1/2/3...but it turned out to be a 1/2/3/4 with the 3s racing for a separate prize list.  I wasn't thrilled about racing with 4s.  And of course the younger racers would have fresh legs so it would undoubtedly be a challenging race experience.  What the hell... I could always pull out if it seemed too sketchy.  I had no clue how I would feel.  Two warm up laps and let's get it on.  I hung on for dear life for two thirds of the race.  I had enough to hang on but nothing more.  Not sure what happened with Eva, it seemed as if she got curbed by Marni - that is, it looked like they'd both ended up going really wide on the second turn and Eva just ended up hitting the curb and getting dumped into the grass.  Didn't look serious but I told Matt there was a rider down when I went through start/finish.  A lap or two latter, Marni & Jen Maxwell almost took each other out.  And then there was some movement farther up in the field - sideways movement that almost took some folks out.  I think it was a combination of heat and fatigue causing these near misses rather than aggressive racing.  I popped when there was a surge for a prime lap.  Matt gave me a couple of laps to try to chase back on then said I was done with my "noble effort" as he called it.  I was ready to be done, I had nothing left.   I wasn't the first to get pulled, and I know several folks simply abandoned the race long before the pulling started.  End result - 22nd overall, 9th among the Cat 3s.  The race was a little more than 1mph faster than the 40+ race had been.  And the average temp was 101!

Overall it was a good race day....not a bad way to finish up with crit racing for the season as there are no more crits in MABRA and I think I'll go do the TT in VA on Sunday instead of driving to PA to do crits.  The TT will be better relative to Church Creek.

Decided to add some extra fun to Church Creek by hooking up with Tania and Amy to create a 3-woman team for the TTT competition.  And then, if I'm feeling really crazy, I'll drive down the Chesapeake for the final PLT TT.  Be a hard weekend but also the last of my racing until Turkey Day so what the hell?

End of the Week

Still rambling because it's been one of those weeks.... work has gotten to be very annoying. But I'm not going to spend a lot of time bitching about it, won't change anything.  Let's just say that it's time for my boss to retire....she's never been totally connected to the real world and the disconnect is getting greater with each passing year.  And she's showing signs of aging illness - she doesn't remember stuff and that means she has a tendency to be annoying to someone like me, who has a really good memory - I don't need her to nag me about stuff, I know my job, I know what needs to get done when.  She's always been a micromanager but its getting worse and worse.  I've tried to get it through to her that the constant "have you done this, what about that" conveys a sense of distrust but she has no self discipline, no ability to stop herself from doing it.  'nuff said.

Trained at Hains Point Tuesday.  That was fun.  Liked the efforts and Chicken and Goat were good for my mental state as they both reminded me that I'm plenty strong enough to stick in any race.  Goat kept raving about what a steady wheel I am.  They sat on my wheel for a couple of my efforts.  Goat sprinted at the endof one,  professing that she couldn't waste a lead out like that.  I cited old school... It was a Giovanni Lombardi effort on my part.

Officiated Greenbelt on Wednesday.  The C race was the biggest they've ever had with 39 starters.  The B and A races where challenging in that once the A race passed the B race, they didn't open up much of a gap.  In the end we had to prime them a couple of times in a row just to open enough space for the Bs to have a finish sprint that wouldn't run them into the back of the As.  Never could prime the Bs because of their proximity to the As.  Like having Sarnacki as my 2nd official there - he's a nice guy and relaxed about it all, which is as it should be at Greenbelt.

Thursday it was back to post-work training.  An unexpected rain storm delayed that ... I spent more than 30 minutes sitting in the car waiting for it to clear up.  Met a guy named Rick from NCVC who had flatted on his way over from Arlington, eventually gave him my spare tube as his patch didn't seem to be holding.  The efforts didn't work out quite as planned but I got some good work in.  Then I caught up with Diane who was doing essentially big gear spinups.  So I did a couple of those with her.  First one I did on 53x13 and second I did 53x12.  It was fun.

Bunny Hop should be fun on Sunday.  I haven't raced it in a couple of years because Mahler in Philadelphia takes priority.  But this year no conflicts so I'll race twice and see if I can manage to have at least one decent race.  Still debating about the long drive and expense (hotel!) of PLT #2...maybe, we'll see...probably would be good for me to do it as it's a couple weeks before Church Creek and if I don't it will have been over a month since I've done a competitive TT.  

I want to cast around and see if I can find 2 women who are somewhat close to me in power and TTing skill to team up and do the 3 person team time trial at Church Creek.  I think it would be fun to do.  Of course I'll be tired from doing the ITT but so what...it'll only be 1/3 of the work for the ITT, right?